#2-399
To Mrs. John B. Wilson
March 22, 1941 Washington, D.C.
My dear Rosie:
I am typing this myself out at Myer. Things have been too fast or pressing at the office of late to permit of even the dictation of a hasty note. Also, I flew off on a 3,000 mile rush inspection trip the other day - saw about 200,000 troops — three divisions in one day; and when I returned the work had piled up seriously, especially in connection with the hearings on the Lease-Loan seven billons. I have had to spend a good deal of time up on the Hill.
I was much amused with your comments on The Conqueror, Hamilton, Jefferson — who, by the way, came from “a small place in the north of the south.” also, your appreciation of Gertrude Atherton.1 I was delighted to learn about Celest’s raise, and especially about Tom’s raise. Some time back I had Miss Thomas call up your Mother to get Tom’s address and telephone number. She gave us the address — out here where we go to the nice, clean little movie theatre, Buckingham Village. But your Mother said that Tom had not put in a telephone. This last rather blocked my intention, because I am always so uncertain of my time that I cannot call up until the last moment, and I wanted to have Tom and Susie over when we were clear and they had some one at hand to look after the children; or to meet us at the movie, where we so frequently go on short notice, and sometimes get a Thursday night bite in the little restaurant next door to the theatre.2
On my recent trip I touched Fort Bragg, N.C., Columbia, S.C., where we have 25,000 troops, Camp McClelland, Ala., Montgomery, Ala., Savannah and two nearby camps, Gainesville, Fla., and a camp there of 30,000, Tampa, Fla., an air base, Orlando, Fla., another air base, and Langley Field, Va — all from ten thirty Friday morning to five o’clock Tuesday evening. Wednesday a.m. at ten I was before a senate committee! Incidentally on the flight north I Flew over the water just off Myrtle Beach of your beloved Uncle. Flew two or three times around Jekyl Island to look over its exclusive colony.
I rode today and yesterday, and am riding in the morning in time to get in town and broadcast for the Red Cross at eleven fifteen. All my ridings has been alone since you and Molly left.
Write [a]nd tell me how John finds his new job and associates.
With my love to you both.
G. C. M.
Document Copy Text Source: Rose P. Wilson Collection, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Author-typed letter signed.
1. The book to which Marshall refers is Gertrude Atherton’s The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton (New York: Macmillan, 1902). It was subsequently reprinted several times with the subtitle “A Dramatized Biography of Alexander Hamilton.”
2. Mrs. Wilson’s letter to Marshall, to which this is a response, is not in the Marshall papers; neither is it mentioned in her book. (Rose Page Wilson, General Marshall Remembered [Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968], pp. 240–41.) Celeste was Rose’s sister, Thomas her brother, and Susan her sister-in-law. Cora Thomas had been Marshall’s appointment secretary since November 1940.
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland, Sharon Ritenour Stevens, and Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr. (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, “We Cannot Delay,” July 1, 1939-December 6, 1941 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 449–450,